[TR] Mt Stuart- circumnavigation 7/28/2005

[Alasdair]

Climb: Mt Stuart-circumnavigation

 

Date of Climb: 7/28/2005

 

Trip Report:

So after much thought and zero preparation, I decided to go and try the Stuart range traverse. The main reason I decided to do this is because I never got round to getting any maps together and wanted to go somewhere I was very familiar with. I left the Stuart Lake TH about 7am and started hiking. I have no idea what time any of the rest of the things in this TR happened because I saw no reason to bring a watch. I hiked up to Stuart Lake and then continued on the trail that goes past the lake until it started going the wrong way. Here I met ranger who was overly concerned that I was going to bivy in an area that I needed a overnight permit for. I left the trail and continued to the head of the cirque below the Stuart Glacier. I slogged up to the right of the Stuart glacier and decided that going over goat pass looked boring. Instead I headed up some snow filled gully on the other side of a prominent tower on the ridge to the east of goat pass. After getting to the top I promptly slipped on some gravel and tumbled down the other side of the pass, amazingly not fucking my self up too badly. After getting back on my feet and struggling down the rest of the gully and up the other side to where the trail to the west ridge of Stuart was I realized that I was really dehydrated, really beat up, and generally felt like shit. I never really thought about it at the time, but I have never done well in the heat, I hate it, and have lots of trouble doing physical exercise in it. All I knew about the weekend is that it was not going to rain, I did not think to look and see if it was going to be 95 degrees. Any way at this point I decided I needed to find some shade and get some more water. I hiked down to the longs pass trail sat down in the woods drank water and slept for a bunch of time (I dont know how long).

After waking up I realized that I was not going to make it back to my car at Stuart Lake TH the next day unless I got my shit together and moved some more. In addition for some unknown reason I had ruled out going back the way I came. This left me two options:

1) hike out to Teanaway river road and hitch to Cle Elum where i could admit defeat and call my girlfriend to come pick me up.

2) Go up the Cascadian and put myself in a better spot to get back to the car the next day.

I decided to go up the Cascadian. I bivied at the top of sherpa glacier, and was promptly visited by goats. They were cute at first, but as the became more and more interested in licking the salt off of me directly I got more and more pissed. First I yelled at them to go away. They did for a couple of min, and were back. Next I banged my ice axe on some rocks and again they were back in two mins. Finally I picked up some small rocks and through them at their rear ends and they got the idea. (Ok I know someone will get pissed at me here, but note the "small rocks" and that these goats at one point were less than two feet from me. I would never do anything to hurt any wildlife.)

This morning was woken up by the same goats licking the salt of my pack that I was using as a pillow. I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck, and decided my only option was to attempt to get back to my car via the Sherpa gacier. I descended the Glacier (which I really did not enjoy) and then hiked back to the car ending what was basically a very painful weekend.

I know someone will ask me this so here goes: The stuart glacier is obviously still a possible descent, although when the tiny little finger of snow crossing the schrund collapses (probably tomorrow) it will be much harder and will likely require a rap off a bollard to get down. The lower part of the glacier is fine, although a little scary if you are not roped to someone.

 

Gear Notes:

Bug repellant

Goat repellant

[spicoli11]

Sorry to hear about that.........you should have gone back over goat pass..... although I'm familar with that part of the brain that does not want to backtrack.

[minx]

it was stupidly hot near stuart this w/e! we totally changed our plans b/c we didn't want to suffer THAT much.

 

interesting trip. at least you didn't have to call your g/f

[chucK]

That's a problem with solo hikes/climbs, you don't have anybody to moderate your pace. It's easy to hit a wall.

 

In your conversation with the ranger, were you able to get a defined boundary over which you could go to legally sleep without an enchantments permit?

[Squid]

[markus]

How was the cascadian? I want to go on or around 8/19. Crampons and Axe required?